March 19, 2014 THE VILLADOM TIMES I, II, III & IV • Page 19 ‘Frozen’ is a homerun for Disney Animation by Dennis Seuling “Frozen” (Disney) is an animated feature film loosely based on “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen. In typical Disney manner, the company has tweaked the story and eliminated most of the dark moments. The Disney version is about two princesses. Elsa, the elder sister, has the ability to shoot ice and snow from her hands. As the girls grow up, with plenty of Broadway-caliber songs along the way, Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel) comes to realize her magical powers can be a threat to those around her, so she retreats from everyone, including her sister, Princess Anna (Kris- ten Bell). The metaphor is clear: A person’s own insecurities can freeze out loved ones. As in the Broadway musical “Wicked,” the dynamic that drives the story is the strained relationship between two girls. “Frozen” is among the best of Disney’s recent animated features. It has a power- house score by husband-and-wife team Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, including the Academy Award-winning song, “Let it Go,” performed by Menzel. The song sequences are mini-extravagan- zas in themselves, but rather than stop the action, they move the story forward. The sis- ters are distinctive and march to their own beat — a theme that crops up a lot lately in animated films. When Anna meets a hand- some mountain man (Jonathan Groff) and his reindeer sidekick, she is conflicted by her attraction to this hunky, dashing guy and an at-home love interest, Hans (Santino Fontana). Comic relief is amply supplied by Olaf (Josh Gad), a Chaplin-esque anthropo- morphic snowman. The two-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack contains deleted scenes, a Mickey Mouse cartoon, a making-of short, and a featurette showing the adaptation process from origi- nal fairy tale to screen. “Saving Mr. Banks” (Disney) is the embellished story of the uneasy collabo- ration between “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) and Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) and his creative team. Disney mounts an extravagant charm offensive to secure the rights to the author’s famous creation. Travers is depicted as can- tankerous, argumentative, rigid, and highly protective of her magical nanny. She also Frozen,’ based on ‘The Snow Queen’ by Hans Christian Andersen, has earned over $1 billion worldwide. has little knowledge of the movie-making process, which becomes a difficult problem for Disney and his beleaguered staff. They are doing their best to wine and dine her, but she is wary of losing control and letting the studio turn “Mary Poppins” into just one more in a long line of animated features. Thompson and Hanks both do a fine job, though it is hard not to suspect quite a bit of Disney-fying of the characters and the story. There are long stretches in flash- back of Travers’ youth in Australia and the devoted relationship with her father (Colin Farrell), who loved to spin yarns. But life’s hard knocks have molded her into a cold, arrogant, condescending person who intim- idates and even frightens those whose only goal is to make a good movie. Disney, in contrast, is depicted as all heart. The charac- ter of Ralph (Paul Giamatti), the chauffeur assigned to Travers in California, is on hand as a humanizing influence. His soft-spoken manner and his personal burden help put Travers’ concerns about “Mary Poppins” in perspective. The Blu-ray edition contains deleted scenes, a tour of the Disney Studio, remi- niscences by Disney employees who worked with Travers, and a tribute to composer Richard Sherman with a rousing rendition of “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” by cast and crew. “The Hidden Fortress” (The Criterion Collection) takes place in a war-ravaged feudal Japan. Two peasants, Tahei (Minoru Chiaki) and Matakishi (Kamatari Fujiwara) have escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp and are heading home when they encoun- ter General Rokurota Makabe (Toshiro Mifune). Rokurota tells the men he knows where a large amount of gold can be found, and enlists their help transporting Princess Yuki (Misa Uehara) to safety. With Yuki disguised as a mute farming girl and the gold hidden in bundles of sticks, the small group travels the countryside avoiding enemy soldiers except when the general is forced to take action. Director Akira Kurosawa’s primary inspiration is American films, particularly those of John Ford. “The Hidden Fortress” is different from many of the director’s films in that it is as much a comedy as an adventure movie. The story is told from the point of view of secondary characters. Tahei and Matakishi are bumbling and greedy and provide lots of the humor. According to George Lucas, these characters were the inspiration for C3PO and R2D2 in “Star Wars.” Bonus features on the two-disc Blu-ray/ (continued on Crossword page)